McDonald's Operations in Taiwan, South Korea Suffer Data Breaches

McDonald's has been having a little bit of bad luck lately, and it might be safe to say they're "not lovin' it."

TechRadar reports that McDonald's operations in Taiwan and South Korea recently fell victim to hackers, who managed to obtain sensitive information about customers and employees. According to industry experts, the data breach is the latest in a series of cyberattacks on several big-name corporations, such as Bose and Electronic Arts.

The parent company of McDonald's claimed that upon identifying suspicious activity in their network, they were able to close the hackers off and prevent them from obtaining even more data, as reported by The Hill. So far, Taiwan and South Korea were the only ones whose operations were sabotaged.

According to McDonald's top brass, the company will do what it can to notify the people whose private information was accessed, as reported by US News. The data included personal emails, phone numbers, and even delivery addresses, which can be used for criminal purposes in the right hands.

It's also worth noting that for other companies who got hit by a similar data breach, there was a ransom collection involved. But the fast-food giant did clarify that there was no ransom paid since the company's day-to-day operations in the affected countries weren't put on hold.

McDonald's Isn't Having a Great Time

This recent data breach isn't the only one that exposed weaknesses in the fast-food chain's cybersecurity measures.

Several McDonald's branches in the U.S. recently tried tapping artificial intelligence to help with managing their drive-thrus. The initial goal was to speed up and make drive-thru orders faster and more efficient, but of course, it didn't really go well on the first try.

While the AI itself didn't really break down, it did cause controversy regarding biometric privacy laws. McDonald's was then hit by a lawsuit, which alleges the company of violating the Biometric Information Privacy Act or BIPA. The act states that no private entity is allowed to collect anyone's biometric information no matter how the collection itself is done. Should the fast-food chain lose the case, it will be ordered to pay a hefty $5 million in restitution.

According to the plaintiff, the reason for the lawsuit involves the way that the drive-thru AI processes information. To achieve its advertised 85% accuracy when taking orders, it analyzes a customer's voice to guess the gender, age, and even nationalities.

Cybersecurity is at a Precipice

With a lot of big-name companies suffering from cybersecurity lapses, it's time that protective measures are improved--fast. We are living in a predominantly digital world that relies so much on tech; tech which a single line of code can breach. And that's a scary thing in itself.

The McDonald's data breach is one of many, and hackers aren't going to stop wreaking havoc any time soon. There might come a time when it's not just people's personal data that may be stolen, but information that can spell the downfall of civilization.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce